chapter 35 - mithradates' schemes

 After a long time, the adjutant, Felicius, came and reported, "The whole army is ready."

 Davos announced with an expressionless face, "Let's go."

 Before, he hadn't felt it obvious in the squad, but now that he was the chief, overlooking the whole situation, he realized the problem. In his previous life, although he was not a soldier, but watching movies and browsing forums, he more or less knew that one of the foundations for the army to win battles was strict discipline and quick mobility, and during the university military training, the emergency assembly was conducted by the minute. Now, it took more than an hour from blowing the horn to the completion of the formation, and this kind of procrastination doused half of his excitement of just becoming the chief.

 Now, with no prestige in the military, he can only observe quietly, note down all the drawbacks, think of solutions, and wait until the time is ripe to talk about reorganizing the army and reforming the military system, which, I'm afraid, will be a long road.

 When the party had gotten nearly halfway out of camp, Felicius said, "Chief Davos, it's time for us to get moving."

 Davos nodded as Xellos had long ago brought his horse. Yesterday, when Davos learned that the chief was having a horse to ride, he was quite nervous, he couldn't ride a horse in his previous life. Who knew that after riding it, he actually controlled it freely. It turns out, at that time, the Mediterranean world several of the most powerful horseback riding race there are the Thessalians, the original owner of this body since childhood sheep herding horses, residual memories and instinctive muscle memory, enough to allow Dyvers to control the horse freely.

 He grabbed the horse's reins and leaped onto the horse, his legs slightly clamped together, and the warhorse threw back its head and lightly neighing, striding its four hooves and trotting forward.

 Davos sat with his head held high. Yesterday, Tormid's words had made him stop thinking about sharing his soldiers' pain and giving up his horse to the old, weak, and disabled soldiers. Now he needed to be high up on his horse, always reminding the soldiers that he, Davos, was the leader of the whole army! As for those practices of buying people's hearts, it would be better to wait until he became a famous general of the world.

 Riding on a horse, looking at the vast march of the team, Davos heart naturally gave birth to a sense of pride: a great man should be so!

 Davos controlled his horse and marched slowly, followed by Felicius, Acistus, followed by the Hieros escort on foot. After leaving the barracks and traveling a bit further, they arrived at the point where the whole army was to rendezvous.

 Davos had thought that his team was slow, but he hadn't realized that there were other teams that hadn't arrived; it seemed that delayed action was a common problem among mercenaries, and one that everyone was used to.

 The Spartan procession of Clerisopes was already standing in front, and as Davos rode past to greet him, there was a considerable commotion in the passing ranks, the other barracks soldiers recognizing him as the chief who had made the wonderful speech yesterday, but there were still some who were both jealous and displeased that a milky-eyed young man should be so high up in the rank and file of the army, and spoke ill of him in questioning his ability to command, causing Acistus, who was close behind, to turn red and face red with rage. Davos, however, was oblivious and simply moved forward.

 Only this group of Hakri Sopes is quiet as if he did not see the arrival of this person, so that Davos seriously measure these real Spartan warriors: only to see them wearing a full set of armament, arranged into a neat square formation, each one of them is tough, standing silently, as if an upright and standing pines, to become this noisy confluence of a unique scenery. And in their sharp and murderous eyes, it made Davos feel how powerful this silence would unleash once it exploded! Physical, skillful, tactical, and disciplined, all rolled into one, this was the Spartan warrior!

 Davos looked and looked enviously: when would he himself be able to command such elite soldiers! It was only later that he realized that only about a third of the troops of Chrysippus were still true Spartan warriors, the rest being Pyrrhusians.

 On either side of the Spartan army were teams of small mercenaries such as Thorsis and Pasion, most of whom had joined the ranks of Kerisopus after the meeting of the whole army, and a few other chieftains had teams joining them as well, leaving only Davos's barracks uninterested. At this, Davos also felt helpless.

 Davos's army formed up quickly this time, as it basically followed the order in which it had left the camp: on the outermost side were the heavy infantry columns in four columns, with the first column in order backward; on the inner side were the light infantry columns in two columns, so that the columns of light and heavy infantry were of the same length, and were about half a mile long in front and behind. When the enemy attacked from the outside of the left flank, the marching column could immediately turn right, with the heavy infantry in front and the light infantry behind, and quickly form a regular battle formation. The supply battalion, on the other hand, was situated on the inside of the light infantry, to the left of this great central open space. Davos and his escort were between the light infantry and the supply camp.

 After about another half hour or so, the battalions finished their formation, the brass bugles sounded again, and it was finally time to go.

 The march was not very rapid, and was mainly slowed down by the various supply battalions; tents, food, medicine, goods, and other supplies that could not be carried by men had to be carried by oxen and horses. Horses, however, could not carry wagons that were too heavy, or the harness would squeeze their necks and windpipes, leading to asphyxiation; bulls were stronger than horses, but had poor endurance and were less reliable in temperament.

 Davos then saw Melsius at the supply camp, traveling back and forth, dealing with unexpected situations, occasionally greeting his soldiers to help. Davos was secretly glad that he had followed Melsis' advice and sent him a squadron beforehand to assist the supply camp. Eventually, Davos' eyes fell on Kristoia among the crowd of women, although she was dressed all the same, her figure and temperament were like a crane, easily recognizable.

 As if sensing it, Kristoia turned her head to look this way.

 Davos was busy withdrawing his gaze.

 "You can't go ten miles in an hour at this rate of marching." He said.

 "It has been good enough without the Persian infestation." Felicius had thankfully just finished speaking when a commotion came from the rear.

 "What happened?" Davos asked, his mind tightening.

 Acistus immediately sent messengers to the rear to check.

 After a while the messenger rode back, "It is the Persian general Mithradates! He has about thirty horsemen with him, and is loudly urging surrender not far from the right flank of the whole army!"

 Takedown! Davos's eyebrows jumped.

 "Mithradates is a general of Cyrus the Younger, but that doesn't work with him, we've fallen for the Persian trick once, a fool would fall for it a second time." Felicius said, unperturbed.

 Davos nodded and said, "Keep an eye on Mithradates and keep poking around!" At the same time, tell Acistus to send out another messenger so that he can alternate messages back.

 ...

 "More than twenty soldiers, abandoning their weapons, ran to the Persians! ... They ... they surrendered to Mithradates!"

 A jolt ran through Davos' mind, clearly Felicius had overestimated the mercenary's intelligence. Besides, Hieronymus' troops were arguing over the selection of a leader yesterday, and now that they were easily torn apart by Mithradates using lies to tear apart the not-so-united Hieronymus' troops, would it create a snowball-like effect across the whole army? Davos began to worry.

 "Mithradates went around to the full rear of the army and shouted to Criano's troops! ... About ten more soldiers threw down their weapons and ran to the Persians!"

 Damn it! Davos' fears were being realized.

 Felicius was equally tense.

 It seemed that Mithradates was preparing to circle around the huge formation of mercenaries, constantly disintegrating the soldiers' fighting spirit. Moreover, he would soon come in front of Davos' troops!

 "If only we could get rid of him." Acistus said in a hateful voice. But he also knew that it was impossible, the other party was light cavalry, coming and going like the wind, and the mercenaries had no cavalry at all.

 "Simply shoot him with a javelin!" Martonius shouted over the escort, drawing the javelin on his back.

 "How? By the time you go out with your javelin, the Persians will have run far away! Besides, a javelin doesn't shoot as far as a Persian horsebow!" Acistus retorted.

 A flash of light flashed through Davos' mind, and he eagerly asked the messenger, "How far away was Mithradates from our array when he shouted?"

 "About a hundred meters away."

 "Did the Persians fall back when the surrendered soldiers ran past?"

 "No."

 ...

 Davos asked a few questions in a row, and when he got the answers, he faced the puzzled gazes of Felicius and the others, and mused for a moment, and then said to Felicius, "Now, I've got an idea, do you think it'll work?"

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